Hard vs soft paywalls

TL;DR

• Test a hard paywall (no X) when traffic is paid, when you get downloads but no sales, or at launch.
• Hard paywalls are common among big health & fitness apps — be aggressive there.
• In one acquired app, a hard paywall + higher price took revenue from $1–2k to $8–10k/month; forcing an X back in halved it.
• The cost: one-star reviews, especially from users who used to get the app free.
• Middle ground: hard for paid traffic only (Hard paywall only for paid traffic (gating by "How did you hear about us?")) or soft with strong exit offers (What to show when users close the paywall (exit offers)).

Details

Steve’s three cases for a hard paywall:¹

1. Paid traffic — you’re paying for the user, so make them pay or leave.
2. Downloads but no sales — ASO/organics work but nobody buys; a hard paywall tests product–market fit immediately because users must start a trial or leave.
3. App launch — instead of building feature after feature, launch with a hard paywall to validate demand (especially in health & fitness).

Case study (Steve’s portfolio app): an acquired app with a soft paywall and a $3 one-time purchase was relaunched with an onboarding flow, a hard paywall and a $60/year subscription — no new features. Revenue went from ~$1–2k to ~$8–10k a month. When the X was added back (Steve says Apple forced it), revenue halved: trial-to-paid stayed the same, but trial-start rate dropped by half — a Mixpanel alert showed trial activation falling from 13% to 6%.²³⁴

Downside: the hard version drew one-star reviews from existing users who felt the app used to be free, which is why Steve recommends showing it to paid traffic only.² Hard paywalls guarantee higher trial activation, but watch trial-to-paid, which can fall.⁵

Benchmark: with a hard paywall Steve expects ≥10% install-to-trial, vs 5–10% for typical apps; he argues for a hard paywall on all Meta traffic.⁶

Disagreements / caveats

• Steve says Apple “forced” the X in his case; App Review enforcement of hard paywalls varies — check current guidelines.
• Single-app anecdote; category matters (fitness tolerates hard walls; utilities with existing free users may revolt).

See also

• Why the paywall belongs in onboarding
• Subscription funnel benchmarks (trial start, trial-to-paid, install-to-paid, LTV per install)

Footnotes

1. We’ve Tested 100s of Paywalls. Here’s What Actually Converts. @ 01:52 — Steve P. Young ↩

2. We’ve Tested 100s of Paywalls. Here’s What Actually Converts. @ 03:02 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩²

3. The Paywall Strategy That Increased Conversions by 56% @ 01:58 — Steve P. Young ↩

4. The Paywall Strategy That Increased Conversions by 56% @ 02:45 — Steve P. Young ↩

5. 56% More Trials With This One Change @ 06:17 — Steve P. Young ↩

6. Before You Spend $1 on Meta Ads, Watch This @ 03:09 — Steve P. Young ↩